together with augustus scarborough at cambridge had been one harry annesley, and he it was to whom the captain in his wrath had sworn to put an end if he should come between him and his love. harry annesley had been introduced to the captain by his brother, and an intimacy had grown up between them. he had brought him to tretton park when florence was there, and harry had since made his own way to cheltenham, and had endeavored to plead his own cause after his own fashion. this he had done after the good old english plan, which is said to be somewhat loutish, but is not without its efficacy. he had looked at her, and danced with her, and done the best with his gloves and his cravat, and had let her see by twenty unmistakable signs that in order to be perfectly happy he must be near her. her gloves, and her flowers, and her other little properties were sweeter to him than any scents, and were more valuable in his eyes than precious stones. but he had never as yet actually asked her to love him. but she was so quick a linguist that she had understood down to the last letter what all these tokens had meant. her cousin, captain scarborough, was to her magnificent, powerful, but terrible withal. she had asked herself a thousand times whether it would be possible for her to love him and to become his wife. she had never quite given even to herself an answer to this question till she had suddenly found herself enabled to do so by his over-confidence in asking her to confess that she loved him. she had never acknowledged anything, even to herself, as to harry annesley. she had never told herself that it would be possible that he should ask her any such question. she had a wild, dreamy, fearful feeling that, although it would be possible to her to refuse her cousin, it would be impossible that she should marry any other while he should still be desirous of making her his wife. and now captain scarborough had threatened harry annesley, not indeed by name, but still clearly enough. any dream of her own in that direction must be a vain dream.
as harry annesley is going to be what is generally called the hero of this story, it is necessary that something should be said of the particulars of his life and existence up to this period. there will be found to be nothing very heroic about him. he is a young man with more than a fair allowance of a young man's folly;—it may also be said of a young man's weakness. but i myself am inclined to think that there was but little of a young man's selfishness, with nothing of falseness or dishonesty; and i am therefore tempted to tell his story.
he was the son of a clergyman, and the eldest of a large family of children. but as he was the acknowledged heir to his mother's brother, who was the squire of the parish of which his father was rector, it was not thought necessary that he should follow any profession. this uncle was the squire of buston, and was, after all, not a rich man himself. his whole property did not exceed two thousand a year, an income which fifty years since was supposed to be sufficient for the moderate wants of a moderate country gentleman; but though buston be not very far removed from the centre of everything, being in hertfordshire and not more than forty miles from london, mr. prosper lived so retired a life, and was so far removed from the ways of men, that he apparently did not know but that his heir was as completely entitled to lead an idle life as though he were the son of a duke or a brewer. it must not, however, be imagined that mr. prosper was especially attached to his nephew. when the boy left the charter-house, where his uncle had paid his school-bills, he was sent to cambridge, with an allowance of two hundred and fifty pounds a year, and that allowance was still continued to him, with an assurance that under no circumstances could it ever be increased. at college he had been successful, and left cambridge with a college fellowship. he therefore left it with one hundred and seventy-five pounds added to his income, and was considered by all those at buston rectory to be a rich young man.
but harry did not find that his combined income amounted to riches amid a world of idleness. at buston he was constantly told by his uncle of the necessity of economy. indeed, mr. prosper, who was a sickly little man about fifty years of age, always spoke of himself as though he intended to live for another half-century. he rarely walked across the park to the rectory, and once a week, on sundays, entertained the rectory family. a sad occasion it generally was to the elder of the rectory children, who were thus doomed to abandon the loud pleasantries of their own home for the sober sunday solemnities of the hall. it was not that the squire of buston was peculiarly a religious man, or that the rector was the reverse: but the parson was joyous, whereas the other was solemn. the squire,—who never went to church, because he was supposed to be ill,—made up for the deficiency by his devotional tendencies when the children were at the hall. he read through a sermon after dinner, unintelligibly and even inaudibly. at this his brother-in-law, who had an evening service in his own church, of course never was present; but mrs. annesley and the girls were there, and the younger children. but harry annesley had absolutely declined; and his uncle having found out that he never attended the church service, although he always left the hall with his father, made this a ground for a quarrel. it at last came to pass that mr. prosper, who was jealous and irritable, would hardly speak to his nephew; but the two hundred and fifty pounds went on, with many bickerings on the subject between the parson and the squire. once, when the squire spoke of discontinuing it, harry's father reminded him that the young man had been brought up in absolute idleness, in conformity with his uncle's desire. this the squire denied in strong language; but harry had not hitherto run loudly in debt, nor kicked over the traces very outrageously; and as he absolutely must be the heir, the allowance was permitted to go on.
there was one lady who conceived all manner of bad things as to harry annesley, because, as she alleged, of the want of a profession and of any fixed income. mrs. mountjoy, florence's mother, was this lady. florence herself had read every word in harry's language, not knowing, indeed, that she had read anything, but still never having missed a single letter. mrs. mountjoy also had read a good deal, though not all, and dreaded the appearance of harry as a declared lover. in her eyes captain scarborough was a very handsome, very powerful, and very grand personage; but she feared that florence was being induced to refuse her allegiance to this sovereign by the interference of her other very indifferent suitor. what would be buston and two thousand a year, as compared with all the glories and limitless income of the great tretton property? captain scarborough, with his mustaches and magnificence, was just the man who would be sure to become a peer. she had always heard the income fixed at thirty thousand a year. what would a few debts signify to thirty thousand a year? such had been her thoughts up to the period of captain scarborough's late visit, when he had come to cheltenham, and had renewed his demand for florence's hand somewhat roughly. he had spoken ambiguous words, dreadful words, declaring that an internecine quarrel had taken place between him and his father; but these words, though they had been very dreadful, had been altogether misunderstood by mrs. mountjoy. the property she knew to be entailed, and she knew that when a property was entailed the present owner of it had nothing to do with its future disposition. captain scarborough, at any rate, was anxious for the marriage, and mrs. mountjoy was inclined to accept him, encumbered as he now was with his father's wrath, in preference to poor harry annesley.
in june harry came up to london, and there learned at his club the singular story in regard to old mr. scarborough and his son. mr. scarborough had declared his son illegitimate, and all the world knew now that he was utterly penniless and hopelessly in debt. that he had been greatly embarrassed harry had known for many months, and added to that was now the fact, very generally believed, that he was not and never had been the heir to tretton park. all that still increasing property about tretton, on which so many hopes had been founded, would belong to his brother. harry, as he heard the tale, immediately connected it with florence. he had, of course, known the captain was a suitor to the girl's hand, and there had been a time when he thought that his own hopes were consequently vain. gradually the conviction dawned upon him that florence did not love the grand warrior, that she was afraid of him rather and awe-struck. it would be terrible now were she brought to marry him by this feeling of awe. then he learned that the warrior had gone down to cheltenham, and in the restlessness of his spirit he pursued him. when he reached cheltenham the warrior had already gone.
"the property is certainly entailed," said mrs. mountjoy. he had called at once at the house and saw the mother, but florence was discreetly sent away to her own room when the dangerous young man was admitted.
"he is not mr. scarborough's eldest son at all," said harry; "that is, in the eye of the law." then he had to undertake that task, very difficult for a young man, of explaining to her all the circumstances of the case.
but there was something in them so dreadful to the lady's imagination that he failed for a long time to make her comprehend it. "do you mean to say that mr. scarborough was not married to his own wife?"
"not at first."
"and that he knew it?"
"no doubt he knew it. he confesses as much himself."
"what a very wicked man he must be!" said mrs. mountjoy. harry could only shrug his shoulder. "and he meant to rob augustus all through?" harry again shrugged his shoulder. "is it not much more probable that if he could be so very wicked he would be willing to deny his eldest son in order to save paying the debts?"
harry could only declare that the facts were as he told them, or at least that all london believed them to be so, that at any rate captain mountjoy had gambled so recklessly as to put himself for ever and ever out of reach of a shilling of the property, and that it was clearly the duty of mrs. mountjoy, as florence's mother, not to accept him as a suitor.
it was only by slow degrees that the conversation had arrived at this pass. harry had never as yet declared his own love either to the mother or daughter, and now appeared simply as a narrator of this terrible story. but at this point it did appear to him that he must introduce himself in another guise.
"the fact is, mrs. mountjoy," he said, starting to his feet, "that i am in love with your daughter myself."
"and therefore you have come here to vilify captain scarborough."
"i have come," said he, "at any rate to tell the truth. if it be as i say, you cannot think it right that he should marry your daughter. i say nothing of myself, but that, at any rate, cannot be."
"it is no business of yours, mr. annesley."
"except that i would fain think that her business should be mine."
but he could not prevail with mrs. mountjoy either on this day or the next to allow him to see florence, and at last was obliged to leave cheltenham without having done so.
